Wisconsin to focus on human trafficking

Attorney general announces summit

It’s a trend that has stunned even the most seasoned in law enforcement officials -- human trafficking. There’s a serious element of prostitution. But in trafficking, someone is being used against their will for sex or labor for someone else’s financial gain. Sex trafficking is especially difficult for teenagers who find themselves caught up in a very adult world.

“Man, when I’m on the streets, it’s all me or nothing; I just try to get what I can get,” says Marceeah, a young Milwaukee woman who doesn’t want her real name used. She spent 14 years in the sex trade and she says now there’s a change in who’s out there.

“Now it’s to the point where it’s 12- and 13-year-olds living the lifestyle and wanting to be with a pimp,” she said.

The girls are younger and the target zone of where to find them -- is wider.

“They will say it’s easier to get the suburban girls because they’re more compliant than the urban girls,” said Marian Ballos, a child welfare manager with the Ozaukee County Department of Human Services. “They will go along; they won’t fight back; they won’t make threats against what is occurring.”

Ballos said Ozaukee County has identified five human trafficking cases in the last five years, and she’s noticing a pattern.

“There are trends where adolescents are being groomed, literally groomed, to participate in illegal activities,” Ballos said.

Claudine O’Leary, a member of Milwaukee County’s Task Force on Human Trafficking, agrees. As a youth worker and community educator in Milwaukee, O’Leary tells girls exploiters try to manipulate them in various ways.

For instance, developing a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship with them over time so eventually the girl does what the man asks.

O’Leary said the reasoning is, “You want to be able to do this for me because you love me.”

Another tactic is offering the girl money.

“But in the end, you don’t get to keep any of the money at all,” O’Leary said. “It’s all about giving the money over to that person.”

Traffickers also limit options so the girl has nowhere else to safely go.

“That person has said, ‘If you leave, I know where you live. I know where your family lives. You won’t be safe and I’ll make sure other people you care about won’t be safe,'" O’Leary said.

By then, the teen feels trapped.

“They’re destitute,” said Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen. “They don’t have a place to live; they don’t have things to eat. And they’re promised those things, and they’re willing to do just about anything to survive.”

Van Hollen calls human trafficking one of his top priorities, with the goal of more cases being prosecuted. There have been nine human trafficking convictions in federal court in Wisconsin since a federal law was passed in 2000. Wisconsin’s human trafficking law was enacted in 2008 and state court prosecutions are slowly increasing.

“It’s a terrible business,” said Milwaukee Circuit Court Judge Rebecca Dallet. “One in which the human body is exploited for profit.”

Dallet recently presided over the trial of Mario Harris, who was convicted of five criminal counts including trafficking of a child, soliciting a child for prostitution and pimping.

“What amazes me the most is that these women and girls got nothing from it, nothing!” Dallet said.

Dallet sentenced Harris to 17 years in prison.

“I hope others in Milwaukee learn about this terrible enterprise that’s going one here,” she said at Harris' sentencing. “To understand the seriousness of it, the danger of it, the danger it poses to every teenager who is a runaway.”

That’s how Marceeah started in the sex trade. She ran away when she was 16 after being molested for years at home.

“He used to give me money not to say anything,” she said. “I thought that was the way it was supposed to be.”

Today Marceeah is done with life on the streets. And she cautions parents to get involved in their kids’ lives before it's too late.

“Your child might be too scared to tell you before it gets too far out of hand,” she said.

Experts say one of the most important things parents can do is to create a nonjudgmental environment in which the child feels comfortable turning to them. Open communication is key.

Van Hollen will host a summit in June, bringing together law enforcement and youth workers to offer education and increase awareness. As for the prevalence of trafficking in Wisconsin, a report in 2008 said there were 200 victims identified. But Van Hollen said he doubts accurate numbers exist.

“What I do know is based upon other signs and what’s happening around the world and around the country, it is a problem and we can do more about it," he said.

Pathfinders is an organization in Milwaukee that reaches out to runaways and other at-risk youth. Julie Bock, Pathfinders’ vice president of runaway and homeless youth services, said statistics show if help isn’t given to a runaway within 72 hours of them being on the streets, one-third of them will be forced to trade sex for food or shelter.

In this 12 News web extra, Bock talks about some warning signs of teens involved in human trafficking:

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